Anthony Edwards Declaring For 2020 NBA Draft
Freshman Georgia guard and potential top pick Anthony Edwards is entering the 2020 NBA draft class, he tells Evan Daniels of 247Sports. Edwards – who has signed with Octagon agent Omar Wilkes for representation, according to Daniels – said that he believes he should be the No. 1 selection this year.
“I think I should go number one, no doubt,” Edwards told 247Sports. “That’s the only place I think I should go.”
While it remains to be seen whether the NBA team that gets the No. 1 pick will agree with Edwards’ assessment, the 6’5″ guard is widely viewed by draft experts as the top player on the board. Edwards currently ranks first on ESPN’s big board, and topped the most recent mock draft published by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic.
“I think he has to be a realistic option for No. 1,” an NBA scout told Daniels. “He has size and strength for position with ability to make shots and create for others. He’s shown glimpses defensively and can impact both sides of the ball. The potential is there to be a future superstar.”
In his scouting report on Edwards, ESPN’s Mike Schmitz praised the 18-year-old’s explosiveness, defensive potential, and ability to create shots, while noting that his decision-making is “a work in progress,” he can be undisciplined on defense, and he’s a streaky perimeter shooter.
In his first and only college season, Edwards averaged 19.1 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 2.8 APG, and 1.3 SPG in 32 games (33.0 MPG). He knocked down just 29.4% of his three-point attempts, despite averaging 7.7 attempts per game.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hawks Rumors: Pierce, Bembry, FAs, Collins
In a look at some of the offseason questions that the Hawks will have to address later this year, Chris Kirschner of The Athletic points to head coach Lloyd Pierce‘s job status as one of those unanswered questions. As Kirschner explains, Pierce has done a good job developing Atlanta’s young players, but there are other factors that could impact his job security.
For one, star guard Trae Young hasn’t always been on the same page with Pierce, according to Kirschner, who suggests the All-Star guard has disagreed with some coaching decisions and didn’t love Pierce’s comments about Young not being named a finalist for Team USA’s roster. Sources with knowledge of the Hawks star’s thinking “have confirmed that his relationship with Pierce isn’t strong,” Kirschner writes.
Some Hawks players have also questioned Pierce’s in-game decisions and rotations. According to Kirschner, one player even offered the following assessment when discussing those decisions: “It’s almost as if we actually are tanking on purpose.”
Here are some other subjects that Kirschner touches on in his story for The Athletic:
- DeAndre’ Bembry has been a personal favorite of Pierce’s, but he may have played his last game for the Hawks, according to Kirschner, who hears from sources that the RFA-to-be was “readily available” leading up to the trade deadline.
- Kirschner is also skeptical that Jeff Teague or Damian Jones, who will be free agents this offseason, will be back with Atlanta in 2020/21. However, he believes Skal Labissiere is a candidate to be re-signed, despite not yet playing a game for the Hawks, since the recently-acquired big man has long been a favorite of GM Travis Schlenk.
- If the 2019/20 season doesn’t resume, the Hawks won’t get a chance to evaluate the on-court fit between Clint Capela and John Collins before the latter becomes extension-eligible, and Kirsher thinks it’ll be hard for the team to offer Collins a massive long-term deal without having seen whether that frontcourt pairing works.
- Given the lack of a clear-cut hierarchy at the top of this year’s draft, Kirschner speculates that the Hawks would be open to trading down or trying to trade that pick for an impact player, even if they were to land the No. 1 selection. Schlenk showed a willingness to move down in 2018, passing on the chance to select Luka Doncic.
Hiatus Notes: Training Facilities, NBA Calendar, Nuggets
With the NBA requiring teams to close their training facilities beginning on Friday, players around the league don’t have many options left for conducting workouts, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
As Bontemps explains, players have also been told not to work out at any non-team public facilities, such as health clubs, fitness centers, college facilities, or gyms. The league is essentially telling players to shut it down outside of home facilities, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. While that’s an option for some players, many live in apartments and have little to no workout equipment at home, Bontemps notes (via Twitter).
There are still ways for players to stay active, but a lack of training facilities for weeks or months could be an issue, as Lakers forward Jared Dudley pointed out on Twitter.
“If we can’t train properly for a month or two, an athlete would need at least a month starting from scratch,” Dudley wrote, when asked how much time players would need to be “game-ready” if the season resumed. “Injuries would be the biggest concern … so it all depends on this lay-off from our facilities.”
Here’s more on the coronavirus situation and the NBA’s hiatus:
- The NBA is discussing “every imaginable scenario” for restarting games, league sources tell Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. As O’Connor outlines, some of those hypothetical scenarios include having a postseason play-in tournament replace the end of the regular season, shortening playoff series, playing games at a neutral site, and pushing back the start of next season until December or even 2021.
- Within that same article, O’Connor reports that team executives around the NBA seem to be “warming” to the idea of starting the 2020/21 regular season in December. While acknowledging that their opinions may by shifting out of necessity, O’Connor points out that this could be a good opportunity for the league to experiment with a new-look calendar, as we observed earlier this week.
- Although the Nuggets had a member of their organization test positive for COVID-19, they don’t plan on testing other players or staffers unless they show symptoms, a source tells Mike Singer of The Denver Post. According to Sam Amick of The Athletic (via Twitter), the affected person with the Nuggets followed state guidelines and was tested by means of the public system — the test wasn’t privately procured.
BIG3 Aims To Hold Quarantined Tournament In April
The BIG3 is working on plans to launch a “quarantined, reality show-style” three-on-three tournament in April, league sources tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
Ice Cube and entertainment executive Jeff Kwatinetz – the league’s founders – have had discussions with TV networks about possibility broadcasting the preseason tournament, which they hope would help fill a void in the sporting world.
As Haynes explains, the idea would be to have approximately 16 to 22 players who test negative for COVID-19 be quarantined together in a large home in Los Angeles. A basketball facility would be built on site, and any player who breaks quarantine at any time during the tournament would be disqualified and removed.
The format would involve seven rounds of games, with teams being reshuffled throughout the tournament and players being eliminated when they accumulate three losses. In addition to the games, the players’ daily lives would also be filmed and broadcast “for added drama and storylines,” per Haynes.
“As long as we can protect the players, which we will do through proper testing and quarantine, Ice Cube and I feel we can give fans some safe, entertaining brand of basketball to get everyone through this pandemic,” Kwatinetz told Haynes.
Even if the BIG3 is able to move forward with its tournament as planned, it’s not yet known which players would participate, but Haynes says that former NBA players like Joe Johnson, Zach Randolph, and Greg Oden are among the possible candidates.
Member Of Nuggets Tests Positive For Coronavirus
A member of the Nuggets‘ organization has tested positive for the coronavirus, the team announced today in a press release. The Nuggets didn’t offer much in the way of specifics, so it’s unclear if the affected person is a player, coach, executive, or staff member.
“The person, who was tested after experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19 on March 16th, is currently under the care of team medical staff and in self-isolation,” the club said in its statement. “The testing was undertaken following guidance from state public health officials and team physicians.”
The Mavericks were the last team to play the Nuggets before the NBA’s hiatus begun, with that game taking place last Wednesday. It’s not clear when the affected Nugget contracted the virus, or if members of the Mavs, Bucks, Cavaiers, or Hornets – all of whom played Denver in the last two weeks – are at risk of having been exposed.
Seven NBA players are known to have tested positive for COVID-19 so far: Jazz stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, Pistons big man Christian Wood, former MVP Kevin Durant, and three other unidentified Nets players.
If the Nugget who tested positive today is a player, that total would increase to eight. Either way, it seems safe to assume that the number of affected players and members of NBA organizations in the coming days and weeks will continue to grow.
“A whole lot of us are going to test positive,” NBPA executive director Michele Roberts told Mark Medina of USA Today earlier this week. “… I certainly know there will be more players, more league staff and my own staff (that will be tested positive). I was hearing the numbers that 40-50% of our population will be positive for the virus, whether or not we test for it.”
NBA Closing Team Facilities Starting Friday
The NBA is temporarily shutting down all 30 teams’ training facilities to staff and players as of Friday in an effort to further mitigate the coronavirus situation, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).
Teams were informed of that change in policy by the league in a memo on Thursday, Charania adds (via Twitter).
At the start of this week, the NBA extended its ban on group practices indefinitely but indicated that team facilities could remain open and players could conduct individual workouts there, as long as they maintained a safe distance from one another.
However, in recent days, a number of teams had closed their facilities of their own accord. As much as clubs wanted players to have a place to get work in, they were “uneasy” about the contact even in that limited environment, says ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
The edict from the NBA ensures that all 30 teams are on equal footing as the league hunkers down for a lengthy layoff.
Draft Notes: Logistics, Medicals, Mock Draft, More
Even before the COVID-19 situation, the 2020 NBA draft was viewed as a confusing one, given how many of this year’s top prospects – including LaMelo Ball, James Wiseman, and RJ Hampton – had their seasons cut short by injuries or eligibility issues. Before going down with injuries, Ball and Hampton were playing on the other side of the world in Australia’s National Basketball League, limiting scouting opportunities for NBA teams.
Now, given the league’s hiatus and its shrinking list of pre-draft events, decision-makers are expecting to have to do their scouting almost exclusively via film, as Ethan Strauss of The Athletic details. Some executives, such as Warriors GM Bob Myers, are still hoping for the opportunity to meet prospects face-to-face, but are unsure whether that will be possible.
“Are we allowed to talk to them in person? That’s a huge part of hiring anybody, which is what a draft pick is; you’re hiring somebody into your company,” Myers said this week. “We’d like to be able to look at them and talk to them and we’d like to see them up close.”
The draft combine typically provides teams with an opportunity to meet dozens prospects in the span of a few days. However, as Strauss notes, even though this May’s combine hasn’t yet been postponed or canceled, few people expect it to happen. It’s also not clear when exactly the draft, currently scheduled for June 25, will take place if the NBA aims to resume its 2019/20 season in the spring or summer.
Here’s more on an uncertain 2020 draft:
- Although teams are getting used to the idea of relying on digital scouting and conducting meetings through video apps like FaceTime or Zoom, executives are wondering how prospects will go through medical checks they’d usually undergo at the combine, writes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. One team staffer conveyed a similar concern to Strauss: “What the league has to do is at least get the medical records. Everything else is optional.”
- Jeremy Woo of SI.com takes his own look at the scheduling and logistical issues surrounding this year’s draft and digs into how the unusual circumstances may affect the decisions being made by potential early entrants.
- Sam Vecenie of The Athletic has published an updated version of his mock draft, with Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball, Deni Avdija, James Wiseman, and Obi Toppin coming off the board first, in that order.
Community Shootaround: NBA Games To Rewatch
With no new games to watch as the NBA continues its coronavirus-related suspension, the league announced this week that it’s making League Pass available for a free trial through at least April 22.
That means that NBA fans will have the opportunity to rewatch any games from the 2018/19 or 2019/20 seasons, along with a few dozen games from previous seasons deemed to be classics.
With that in mind, a panel of ESPN writers picked out 30 games – one for each team – worth rewatching from the last two seasons, including the Celtics‘ double-overtime win over the Clippers last month, the Rockets‘ 159-158 win over the Wizards earlier in the season, Kawhi Leonard‘s first return to San Antonio last season, and several memorable playoff games from the 2019 postseason.
ESPN’s list is a good start, but it’s hardly exhaustive. So we want to open up the conversation to you.
Are you taking advantage of the free League Pass preview? If so, which games from the last two seasons are you watching first? Which of the league’s classic games are you curious to rewatch or perhaps check out for the first time? And which games would be your all-time top picks for rewatching, regardless of NBA League Pass availability?
International Notes: Australia, China, Turkey, EuroLeague
After canceling the remainder of their best-of-five Grand Final series earlier this week due to the coronavirus pandemic, Australia’s National Basketball League announced today that the Perth Wildcats have been crowned champions for 2019/20. Perth was leading the Sydney Kings 2-1 in the series when it was canceled.
In a statement, NBL owner and executive chairman Larry Kestelman and commissioner Jeremy Loeliger explained the decision and announced that former standout Providence guard Bryce Cotton has been named the Grand Final MVP.
The NBL’s press releases this week have made it clear that the league’s decision to cancel the rest of the Grand Final series was made in large part because the Kings expressed they weren’t comfortable with continuing to play those games. Bogut, who said Sydney’s decision was made after “almost three hours of back and forth (and plenty of tears),” registered his displeasure with the way the NBL handled things.
“I want to go on record to say I am beyond embarrassed and disappointed in regards to how this was handled by our league from the week leading up to the Grand Final series. More to come at a later date re: that,” Bogut wrote in a Twitter note. “This has nothing to do with the result announced today and I wish to congratulate the Perth Wildcats on being crowned Champions.”
Here’s more international news from basketball leagues around the world:
- Jeremy Lin, Ekpe Udoh, and Antonio Blakeney are among the players who have now returned to China and will begin a two-week quarantine before returning to their respective CBA teams, per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (Twitter links).
- The Turkish government has made the decision to suspend all sports in the country, including basketball, Carchia writes in a story at Sportando. Players in Turkey expressed dismay last week that games were continuing amid the coronavirus outbreak, as we noted at the time.
- The EuroLeague issued an update on the postponement of its season, addressing whether or not players are allowed to leave their respective cities, what will happen with this year’s EuroLeague Final Four, and much more. Carchia has the full memo at Sportando.
Heat, Wolves Among Latest To Provide Aid To Arena Workers
The Heat and AmericanAirlines Arena announced on Wednesday that they’ll be providing financial assistance to team and arena part-time staffers who have lost work as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, writes Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Heat owner Micky Arison‘s foundation will be donating an additional $1MM to establish an initiative aimed at aiding employees and addressing other community needs in the coming months, Winderman adds.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor also announced this week that he’s pledging $1MM of relief to part-time workers at the Target Center, as Chris Hine of The Star Tribune details.
Miami and Minnesota join most of the rest of the NBA’s teams in having announced plans to assist their part-time arena workers displaced by the hiatus. A small handful of clubs, including the Jazz and Thunder, have yet to announce a formal plan or confirm that plans are in motion, but that isn’t to say that those teams won’t implement a program as well.
As Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune writes, Jazz center Rudy Gobert pledged $200K to part-time arena employees in Utah, but the team has yet to inform its 800+ part-time workers how that donation will be used or whether the franchise itself will be compensating its arena employees for lost games in any way — currently, staffers are only being paid for events they actually worked, according to Larsen, who notes that the Jazz ownership group seems “focused on job placement for their part-time employees, rather than subsidies.”